


Bad For You

by Gooseberrybrains



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, First Dates, Getting Together, Lab Tech Remus, M/M, Walks On The Beach, doctor sirius
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 16:31:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20138524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gooseberrybrains/pseuds/Gooseberrybrains
Summary: Jesus, but this is getting ridiculous. He’s going to think I have some sort of deficiency if I keep letting him fluster me. I remind myself that it’s all in my head. He’s the doctor and I’m the lab tech, there is no way he has any interest in me beyond that. The girls in the front office are always flirting with him, and while he’s polite, he never returns the attention.I reach to grab his tray of slides and shove it between us like a shield. He takes it from me, his hand touching mine in the process, and I swear I feel his fingers stroke mine before he pulls away.“Thank you, Remus.” He offers another stunning smile before he leaves me gaping after him as he walks away.I am so fucked.





	Bad For You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pixelated](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixelated/gifts).

> This fic is a birthday present for RJ ([pixelated](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixelated/works)). It's a couple days late because I suck at life, but better late than never! Happy Birthday, RJ! I hope you like it!

“Dr. Black?” I knock softly and stick my head through the gap in the office door.

Dr. Black is a ridiculously handsome man with striking gray eyes and a permanent five o’clock shadow. He has long dark hair that he always keeps pulled back while at work. I’ve never seen him with it down but I  _ have  _ spent countless hours imagining what it would look like draped over his shoulders, and what it would feel like to run my hands through it. He is young, he can’t be much older than me, so maybe mid to late thirties and yet Dr. Black is the director of the entire Pathology department at the hospital. He’s both clever and funny, though he is also quite particular about the quality of the work coming out of the labs he oversees. I’ve been working with him for almost five years now, but since switching to the specialty lab focusing on cancer diagnostics I have gotten to know him much better. 

“Come on in, Remus.” Dr. Black says, looking up from his desk and flashing me a smile. 

I take a deep breath and step inside the spacious yet cluttered office and close the door behind me. “You wanted to talk to me about something?” 

Dr. Black gestures to the chair in front of his desk. “I wanted to tell you that the representative from Snape Diagnostics was here today and told me that we had one of the best success rates for our Her2 in-situ hybridization without repeat tests being needed. I know that you were the one responsible for creating the protocol and doing all the work to get it running, so I wanted to say thank you. You have been a huge asset to the department and if you ever consider leaving, I hope that you will come to me first.”

I smile gratefully. “Thank you. I appreciate it, Dr. Black.”

Dr. Black comes around his desk and puts a hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. “Call me Sirius, please.”

I nod again and stand up, looking him in the eye. “I should get back to work. Thank you again… Sirius.”

  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  


A week later sees me working the early shift in the lab alone. It’s six in the morning and my other coworkers won’t be in until eight. I’m going about my usual tasks, setting things up and turning on the machines for the day when Dr. Black- _Sirius_- comes into the room. 

“Uh oh, here comes trouble.” I tease, smiling at him as I look up from the paperwork I’m organizing.

He presses a hand to his chest in mock offense as a dazzling smile lights up his face. “Is that any way to greet me? I haven’t asked you for anything all week!”

I snort in amusement. “It’s only Tuesday.”

“So? It still counts.”

I set my pen down before turning to face him properly. Looking up into his gorgeous face causes my heart to constrict in my chest. I ignore it, as I always do, and address the matter at hand. “What can I do for you, Sirius?”

  
  


He sighs dramatically and hands me a sticky note with a surgical number on it. “I need the tests on this case rushed. The patient isn’t doing well and they want to begin treatment as soon as possible.”

“No problem,” I say while typing the case number into the computer so I can see what’s ordered on it. “It will be ready by noon.”

“Thanks, Remus. You’re the best.” He puts a hand on my shoulder and it lingers a bit longer than what would be appropriate for a work relationship. He lets it slowly drag down my bicep as he walks away, causing my heart to leap into my throat. I firmly shove it back down where it belongs and get up to start working on his request.

Later, when the rush is ready, I page Sirius and return to sorting out the cases for the other pathologists. I’m expecting him to return the page with a phone call, but he sneaks up on me instead. 

“You paged me?” 

His voice is directly behind me and I startle before spinning around to face him. He is so close that I can see flecks of blue in his gray eyes as I peer up at him. My back is pressed into the counter behind me and Sirius had a devious look in his eyes when he smiles at me. I clear my throat nervously and try to remember why I paged him. 

“Umm… your rush case is done,” I manage to stammer out. 

Jesus, but this is getting ridiculous. He’s going to think I have some sort of deficiency if I keep letting him fluster me. I remind myself that it’s all in my head. He’s the doctor and I’m the lab tech, there is  _ no way _ he has any interest in me beyond that. The girls in the front office are always flirting with him, and while he’s polite, he never returns the attention. 

I reach to grab his tray of slides and shove it between us like a shield. He takes it from me, his hand touching mine in the process, and I swear I feel his fingers stroke mine before he pulls away. 

“Thank you, Remus.” He offers another stunning smile before he leaves me gaping after him as he walks away. 

I am so fucked. 

  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  


“Sirius, do you have a minute?” I’m standing in the open doorway to his office, holding a tray of slides and internally cursing myself for being so nervous over a routine request. 

He looks up from his work and smiles at me. “Sure, what’s up?”

I enter his office as confidently as I can manage and place the tray I’m holding down in front of him. “I’m running some validations on this new antibody and I was hoping you could review the slides with me. It doesn’t look quite like I expected it to.”

“Alright, let’s see,” Sirius says, turning on his microscope and picking up the first slide. 

I sit down across from him and adjust the eyepiece on my side of the viewing scope. I’m meant to be looking at the slides with him but I’ve gotten distracted by the way his hands are picking up and putting down the glass slides. He has beautiful hands with long, elegant fingers that I can't help but imagine touching me in intimate places. As soon as I realize what I’m doing I flush, the temperature in the room feels like it rises ten degrees. 

Sirius glances up at me from behind his microscope, a concerned look on his face. “Are you okay?”

I shift in my seat, half hard in my scrubs and mortified by it. Having an erection in scrub pants is as obvious as having one in sweatpants and I will it away with all of the self-control I have. “I’m fine.” I squeak but I’m sure my face flushes an even darker red with my humiliation. 

He stares at me for a moment, and maybe it’s my imagination but it looks as though his gray eyes darken. My breath catches in my throat and I try to swallow past the lump that has lodged itself there. Finally, when I think I might go mad and leap over the desk at him, he speaks. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“Umm… I don’t— wait, what?” I realize with irritation that I’m stammering again, but his question surprised me. 

Sirius laughs breathily with a slight shake of his head. “Are you free tomorrow night?” 

“Uhhh… yes? But I think Peter in on call this weekend if you need something.” 

He rolls his eyes at me this time. “I don’t want Peter. I want to take  _ you  _ to dinner.”

“Oh!” I’m still struggling to find my words and I’m feeling more embarrassed by the second. “Like a date?” I’m almost whispering when I say it. 

Sirius laughs. “Yes, exactly like a date.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and smile at him. “Okay then.”

  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  


I’ve been standing in front of my mirror now for what feels like ages. It still hasn’t sunk in that I’m going on a date with Dr. Bla - damn it,  _ Sirius.  _ I  _ really  _ have to stop calling him that now. I consider my reflection again. I look good. The V-neck sweater I picked clings to my chest and shoulders nicely, and my slim fitting jeans hug my ass in a way that my friend Lily refers to as ‘delicious’. It’s not my appearance causing my anxiety right now though. I have no idea how I’m supposed to talk to Sirius like a normal person tonight. We have never talked to each other about anything that wasn’t work related before and it’s occurring to me that I don’t know anything about him. There is something about him that I find really sexy, and I said yes to the date because I couldn’t imagine saying no. Still, I have no idea what I was thinking. There has to be a hospital policy against interdepartmental dating. Sirius is a doctor and the director of the department so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who would pay for this disaster. 

I frown at myself in the mirror. I’m certainly not helping my cause by diving down this rabbit hole right now. Even so, I know I won’t be able to let it go. I pull my phone out of my back pocket and hit the speed dial for Lily. I need her voice of reason, even though I know that I’m going to hear it for waiting so long to tell her. 

The phone rings 3 times before she picks up. “Hi, Remus,” she greets me cheerfully. “What’s going on?”

“Lily, don’t be mad at me, okay? I need your advice.”

There’s a pause on the other end of the line and then I hear Lily take a deep breath. “What did you do?”

Lily is my closest friend and she also happens to work on the floor below mine in the microbiology lab. So while she doesn’t work directly with Sirius, she is very much aware of who he is. Then again, I doubt many people in our part of the hospital  _ don’t _ know him. She also usually knows more about the hospital policies than I do since if it doesn’t directly pertain to my daily tasks, I don’t bother with it. Lily, on the other hand, goes through her email religiously and prints out updated policies regularly . She always says that “it’s important to know what’s important” or something like that.

Now though, I decide my best bet is to just blurt out the news. “You know Dr. Black?” This is a stupid question, of course she does. It looks like I’m stalling after all. 

I can practically hear her eye roll over the phone when she answers me. “Dr. tall, dark and handsome? Who doesn’t?”

“Right, well… I kinda have a date with him tonight.” I rush through the sentence and immediately cringe as I wait for her response.

“ _ What _ ?” Lily shrieks and I jerk the phone away from my ear. “You mean he’s  _ gay _ ?” 

“Uh, either that or this is an elaborate prank,” I say and then immediately start cursing myself for putting  _ that _ idea in my head.

Lily snorts in response. “Remus, don’t you dare start worrying about that now too. Okay, so if you have a date with the hot doctor tonight, why are you calling me?”

“Well, I may be second-guessing my decision to go out with him,” I explain as I mentally go through my list of reasons why this is a terrible idea.

“Are you kidding? I’ll go out with him then!”

I sigh into the receiver and flop down on my bed. “I’m serious, Lily. I mean, I said yes because I wanted to, but now that I’m thinking about it… Don’t you think the hospital probably has a policy about dating coworkers? I mean, the sexual harassment claims alone…” 

“Shit, that’s a good point. Hang on.” I can hear her rustling papers and imagine that she is digging through her desk and her endless printouts. “Here we go. Let’s see - okay, so it is definitely against the rules to get involved with your boss. Coworkers  _ are  _ allowed, but it looks like they recommend disclosing the relationship to HR to avoid any potential sexual harassment issues.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. That’s good news at least. Sirius does rank above me, but he’s not technically my boss. So we’re in the clear. However, that doesn’t mean that there won't be other problems associated with it. I can’t imagine that people wouldn’t give him a hard time for getting involved with a lab tech. Still, that’s for him to decide, I remind myself. Who’s to say he wants anything beyond one date?

“Remus?” Lily’s voice snaps me out of my internal musings.

“Yeah?”

“Stop worrying, and go on a date with the hot doctor before someone else beats you to it,” she says matter of factly. 

“Okay, I’m going. I’ll talk to you later,” I promise and I’m about to end the call when I hear her yelling.

“You better give me all the details tomorrow, Remus Lupin!”

I laugh and hang up the phone without answering her. I’ve only got a few minutes to finish getting ready before I’m supposed to meet Sirius and I have no idea where I put my sneakers. 

  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  


I park along the street maybe a quarter-mile from The Coastguard House. It’s a beautiful night and I’m honestly surprised that I got a spot as close as I did. The walk along the stone wall that separates the beach from the sidewalk is peaceful but I am a bit too anxious to properly enjoy it. I glance at my watch and notice that I am a couple of minutes early. Hopefully, Sirius is too because I don’t think I can handle sitting at the table by myself while I wait for him. 

Turns out I needn’t have worried. The hostess leads me to a quiet table in the corner of the crowded restaurant when I give her his name. I stop walking before she does when I see him sitting there. 

Dear God.  _ He has his hair down _ . How do you act casual when all of your fantasies are turning into reality? It is simultaneously everything I ever imagined and yet so much more. He looks like a modern-day Adonis, the way the dark locks cascade around his shoulders and onto his back. He’s wearing a dark blue button-up shirt that makes his eyes shine like the star he was named after. I realize my mouth is hanging open, and I close it as the hostess gives me a knowing look. 

“Have fun,” she says with a cheeky grin as she walks away.

I approach the table, feeling my stomach churning as though it is full of bats (butterflies are too small for the chaos inside me right now). Sirius looks up from the menu he’s studying as I pull out my chair. 

“Remus, hi! You look great,” he says, his eyes darkening as they rake over me. 

I can feel the blush spreading over my cheeks as I sit down. “So do you,” I mumble, meeting his eyes briefly before my gaze skitters away. 

The conversation is a bit stilted at first since I have no idea what to say and am nervous as hell. Sirius is talkative enough for the both of us though and he is so at ease that I find myself starting to relax as well. Before I know it, he has roped me into a conversation about new equipment in the lab, something that I have a strong opinion on and can talk about without hesitation. From there Sirius manages to segue us into an idle chat about electronics, pets, music, and various other topics. 

I’ve relaxed completely by the time dessert comes around and I can’t believe what a great time I’m having. I realize that I’m not ready for this date to end, and so when Sirius asks me if I’d like to take a walk on the beach, I’m quick to say yes. 

We take our shoes and socks off to leave them in Sirius’ car and roll up the cuffs of our pants before descending into the sand. Once we are walking along the surf at a steady pace, Sirius reaches across the small space between us to clasp my hand in his. I feel my face heat up at the contact, but I’m also thrilled by it. I squeeze his hand lightly and smile when he squeezes back. We aren’t talking right now, just enjoying each other’s company and the waves breaking over the sand at our feet. 

Because my brain hates me, I start to wonder again if anything more can become of this, or if Sirius would even want more. Would he want to take the heat that comes with dating a lab tech at the hospital, especially a  _ male  _ lab tech? I don’t know if he’s out,  _ I _ certainly hadn’t realized until he asked me on this date. 

We stop walking abruptly, and I shake myself out of my thoughts to see Sirius staring down at me. 

“What?”

Sirius shakes his head in amusement. “I can  _ hear _ you thinking. Stop overthinking everything.”

I frown up at him. “I have a hard time turning my brain off.” That has got to be the biggest understatement of the year.

Sirius smiles at me and brings his free hand up to my face. His fingers caress the edge of my jaw, and the pad of his thumb brushes my bottom lip. I take in a shuddering breath, and the moment my lips part, he kisses me. It’s like nothing I have ever experienced before. Everything about this night has been so perfect and I can scarcely believe that I’m standing in the surf kissing _ Dr. Black _ right now. I can feel the water swirling around my calves and Sirius’ tongue sliding against my own as I press deeper into him. I squeeze his hand tighter with my own and bring my other hand up to thread through his hair. It’s everything I imagined it would be. 

I’m reluctant to stop kissing him, but I don’t fight it when he pulls away. I allow him to lead me back up the beach to his car where I retrieve my shoes and socks. I don’t put them back on yet since my feet are all sandy, and I know I have a towel in my trunk. Instead, I stand there, shuffling awkwardly and unsure what to say now that the evening has come to a close. Thankfully, just like every other time tonight, Sirius comes to my rescue.

“Can I have your number?” He pulls his phone from his back pocket and looks at me expectantly. I give it to him, why wouldn’t I? I’m awarded with a brilliant smile as he types it into his phone. He meets my eyes again right as my phone chimes in my pocket, and he smiles. “Now you have my number too.”

He kisses me again, shorter and sweeter than before, and we part with smiles and the obligatory comments about seeing each other at work on Monday. It’s not until I’m halfway back to my car that I pull my phone from my pocket and look at his message.

**Unknown: ** When can I see you again?

The smile that spreads over my face is so wide it makes my cheeks ache.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gooseberrybrains)!


End file.
